Why govt sitting on parking lot proposals, activist asks

Social activist Pravin Wategaonkar, who has alleged corruption in allotment of parking lots, today sought to know why Maharashtra government was sitting on 16 proposals of allotment of parking lots.
According to an affidavit filed by Wategaonkar in his PIL, if the government earned a revenue of Rs 200 crore by allotment of five parking lots last year, it should explain why it was not deciding 16 other proposals, when the state, reeling under drought, needs funds.
Wategaonkar, who has filed a public interest litigation alleging corruption in allotment of public parking lots by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Minister of State for the Urban Development Department Bhaskar Jadhav (NCP), today filed an additional affidavit.

According to the information obtained by him under Right to Information Act, government cleared three proposals for parking lots on June 20 last year, a day before three floors of Mantralaya (state secretariat) were gutted in fire.
As per the Urban Development Department, between November 2010 to January 2013, 21 proposals were submitted, but only five were sanctioned while 16 are pending.
The department said it could not give more details because the files were destroyed in the fire.

Wategaokar's affidavit points out that three of these proposals were cleared on June 20, 2012, a day before the fire. File of M/s N D Developers was cleared on July 6, 2012, within two weeks of Mantralaya fire.

"If the UDD said that all the records and files are burnt in the Mantralaya fire then question arises as to how did the file of N D Developers was not damaged. Or was it reconstructed within a fortnight of the fire and approved?" Wategaonkar asks in the affidavit.
The petition is likely to come up for hearing on May 2.